Pulse Data International, the world's leading manufacturer of personal digital assistants for the blind, is proud to lift the lid on the next exciting version of KeySoft for the BrailleNote family of products. Due for release in the fourth quarter of 2004, KeySoft 6.1 is our most feature-packed upgrade yet.

KeySoft 6.1 delivers greater, better, faster connectivity to give you unparalleled access to the world of on-line information how you want, where you want.

• Wireless… Stay Connected while being Unplugged!
• BrailleNote Browses Better… It’s Easy!
• Full Networking Support… It’s Powerful!
• Transparent Handling of Microsoft Word… It’s Automatic!
• E-mail improvements… It’s Faster!
• Upgraded Operating System… It’s More versatile!
• Easy Upgrade… Do It Yourself!
• Upgrading for Software Maintenance Agreement users… It’s a Great Value!

Wireless Means Staying Connected while being Unplugged

  KeySoft 6.1 brings you full wireless networking support when you plug in a supported wireless network card sold separately. Have a wireless network at home? Use your BrailleNote in so many new ways, only limited by your imagination! Log onto your favorite newspaper's web site, and read the newspaper at the breakfast table. Browse an on-line TV guide from the comfort of your armchair. Do your e-mail under a shady tree on those warm summer evenings.

  Take your BrailleNote or VoiceNote with you and connect to any wireless hot spot at a café, airport, hotel or anywhere that wireless can be found.

Use your College campus wireless network to access the web for research.

And it's so easy! KeySoft's legendary, intuitive user interface, written from the ground up with blind people in mind, makes browsing for hotspots and connecting to wireless networks a snap, all from our new, feature-packed Connectivity Menu.

BrailleNote Browses Better

KeyWeb has won acclaim for being the most intuitive way for a blind person to surf the web. With KeyWeb, there's no need to go in and out of forms mode when you want to complete a form on the web. Easily access the link you want by pressing its initial letter, without having to go into a special links list mode. Now, surf more pages, faster than ever before, with the improved KeyWeb in KeySoft 6.1. Based on Internet Explorer 6 technology, KeyWeb gives you access to on-line banking and shopping, and many sites that use complex enhancements like Javascript. Manage your banking with privacy and dignity, shop at a time that suits you and without assistance, do in-depth research on that big assignment, all on the most easy-to-use web browser for the blind on the market today. Go where you've never been able to go before, surf faster than ever.

Full Networking Support

With KeySoft 6.1, your BrailleNote truly becomes part of a home, campus or corporate network. Imagine connecting to your wireless network at home, sitting outside in the sun, and working with Word documents, MP3 files or books stored on your PC inside your house. At a meeting in the office, be the envy of your sighted co-workers as you have full access to all the facts and figures on the network, and all in Braille. Teachers in the classroom can put coursework on the school network which the student can retrieve and work with effortlessly. Map drives, browse other computers, and more with our new networking support.

Transparent Handling of Microsoft Word

BrailleNote's transparent handling of Microsoft Word is unrivalled in the blindness technology industry. Write an immaculately formatted document in our powerful word processor, attach it to an e-mail, and it automatically gets translated into a format readable by your sighted peers. No need to save in another format, no need to concern yourself with back-translation, the BrailleNote is smart enough to do all that for you. Now, that support just got a whole lot better, with support for Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003 documents. Have friends and co-workers send you material in the latest Word format by e-mail, and instantly turn it into a Braille file if you wish.

E-mail improvements

KeySoft 6.1's e-mail has been substantially reworked to be faster and more reliable. Use more than one e-mail account? Now you can assign a unique outgoing address to each account. Use your BrailleNote for e-mail at work and your personal e-mail account, and the BrailleNote knows which outgoing address to use.

The old Directory of Services Menu makes way for two new features. A Directory of E-mail accounts stores details relating to your e-mail servers, while the new Network Configurations menu stores details about the different ways you go on-line. This combination makes the BrailleNote much more versatile and feature-rich.

Upgraded Operating System

KeySoft 6.1 will require an upgrade of the BrailleNote's operating system to Microsoft's Windows CE 4.2, meaning more exciting enhancements are just around the corner. BrailleNote is combining the power of Microsoft's latest mobile computing offering with a user environment that's intuitive, convenient, and most importantly of all, efficient. With our BrailleNote development team now triple the size, the fun is just beginning.

Easy Upgrade

Goodbye to back to base ROM upgrades! KeySoft 6.1 owners will receive a compact flash card in the mail, allowing users to upgrade their operating system and burn KeySoft 6.1 into ROM. Have the latest Microsoft technology and more space on your flash disk for your data.

And so much more, to be announced before release.

Upgrading for Software Maintenance Agreement users

There are two components that are essential for KeySoft 6.1 to run on your BrailleNote. Firstly, there is of course KeySoft itself. But secondly, there's the need to upgrade the operating system. When you subscribe to most software maintenance programmes, you are still expected to take responsibility for keeping your operating system current by paying separately for that. At Pulse Data, we realize that you've made a significant investment in your BrailleNote or VoiceNote, and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to take advantage of this breakthrough release of KeySoft. So we have a special deal for current SMA holders. You may use one SMA count for the operating system upgrade, and another SMA count for KeySoft 6.1. Please note that both the operating system and KeySoft are required. That is to say that older versions of KeySoft will not run on the new operating system, and the new version of KeySoft will not run on the present operating system in your BrailleNote.

If you are a current SMA holder but only have one upgrade remaining before your SMA expires, you may purchase a second SMA for the price of the SMA compact flash option. This means that you will be able to complete the KeySoft 6.1 upgrade by using the remaining upgrade from your first SMA, and the first upgrade from your second SMA.

If you do not currently have a software maintenance agreement, the cost of KeySoft 6.1 is US$399 plus shipping.

Note that everyone who purchases a BrailleNote after the release of this announcement is entitled to a free upgrade to KeySoft 6.1 when it ships, meaning you can use all the great features of the BrailleNote today plus get all the new good stuff at no additional charge.

We'll keep you posted on when we will be taking orders, as KeySoft 6.1's delivery gets closer. We're excited about delivering the latest in connectivity to complement the most powerful, feature-rich blindness PDA on the market today.